GMO FOOD Series: WHEN SCIENTISTS ALTER FOOD, THEY ALTER LIFE

I enjoy junk food as much as any American. I like to indulge in salt and vinegar potato chips and my new favorite flavor is the jalapeno chips. In the good old days, eating chips and other sugar filled snacks presented health problems such as gaining weight, feeling tired and the chance of getting cavities. We knew junk food was bad for us; but we were able to make an informed choice on whether we wanted to eat it or not. In the present day, however, there are much more serious health risks as a result of the proliferation of genetically modified foods (GM) and products that have made their way into almost all food now being consumed by Americans.

Here is a list of GM crops that are currently being grown in the United States, referenced from Dr. Jeffrey Smith’s website (number in parentheses represents the estimated percent that is genetically modified):

Soy (91%),

Cotton (88%),

Canola (80-85%),

Corn (85%),

Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%),

Alfalfa, zucchini and yellow squash (small amount)

HIDDEN GM INGREDIENTS

So now that you have an idea of what foods are GM, then it should be relatively simple to avoid these foods, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. There are about 102 invisible GM ingredients found in most, if not all, processed foods that you will find on the shelves of any grocery store in the United States. One of the main offenders is high fructose corn syrup, or as they like to call it now, “corn sugar”; this is used to sweeten just about every product you can think of.

“IN SICKENESS AND IN HEALTH, UNTIL GM DO US PART”

So, at this point, you may be asking yourself, what is the big deal about GM foods? The big deal is that in many studies done across the world, GM foods have been found to cause very serious health problems, such as a marked increase in allergies in humans, and, in animals studies, damage to internal body organs, pre-cancerous cells in the stomach lining, problems in reproductive organs and death. One of the main organs damaged in animals is the liver. Of course, the “side effect” of death is the one to be most concerned about. In many of the studies performed on rats, 55.6% of the rats fed GM crops died. In India, six sheep were allowed to feed on GM cotton crops after harvest and all six sheep died within thirty days.

WORLD LEADING SCIENTIST SILENCED

Dr. Arpad Pusztai, a former and world leading GM scientist at the Rowett Institute in Scotland, performed a study on rats using GM potatoes in 1997. In this study, GM potatoes, natural potatoes and natural potatoes with insecticide added were fed to the rats; the results of the study found that only the rats that ate the GM potatoes became ill. These rats also showed pre-cancerous cells in their stomach lining, damage to their liver and damage to their immune systems. Dr. Pusztai, being extremely concerned about these results, was interviewed on public television and published his results in The Lancet, a world leading medical journal. He stated in the interview that he would not eat any genetically modified foods as they pose a serious health risk, based on the results of his study. A few of days later, Dr. Pusztai was fired and his research team was dismantled; we can only presume, this is how corporations pushing GM foods attempt to silence the truth. I will be covering the corruption and cover up of the true results of many other studies in the next series of articles.

Another GM Food that was tested, Flavr Savr Tomatoes, were never put on the market due to a lawsuit that was filed during the FDA’s voluntary review process; this action forced additional information to be released about the study of the rats tested. Out of the forty rats fed the Flavr Savr tomatoes, seven developed bleeding lesions in their stomachs. Dr. Pusztai commented that this type of condition in humans can lead to life-endangering hemorrhaging, especially in the elderly using aspirin to prevent thrombosis. The “last nail in the coffin” for this product was the following result: the same seven rats died within two weeks of eating the tomatoes.

In conclusion, until more studies are done to ascertain the true effects of GM foods on human health, the FDA has a responsibility to the American people that fund the agency to protect them and to pull all GM food products out of distribution. Below is a link to Dr. Smith’s website from which you can print out a handy, compact list that shows all the GM foods, including the invisible GM food additives, to use as a reference when you go shopping. Dr. Smith is a leading advocate in educating people all over the world about the dangers of GM foods and an acknowledged expert in the GM field.